How to Write 秝 (lì) — Meaning “orderly rows of grain”

Picture two identical stalks of grain lined up next to each other in a field. Since 秝 looks like two 禾 radicals side by side, you can remember that it means orderly rows by thinking of a farmer checking his tidy crop lines.

Write the left 禾 first with its standard stroke order (short left-falling, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, dot), then write the right 禾 slightly narrower to fit within the square. A common mistake is making the two halves uneven or too wide, which breaks the balanced look.

秝 has two 禾 radicals meaning orderly rows, while 秆 uses a single 禾 with 干 and refers to a plant stalk or stem. 秉 combines 禾 with 又 (hand) to mean 'hold' or 'grasp'. Visually, 秝 is wider with two identical halves, unlike the others.

秝 is very rare and not in the HSK vocabulary list. It appears mainly in classical Chinese texts or poetic descriptions of farmland, and occasionally as a name character. You will almost never see it in everyday modern writing.

Common words containing 秝 include: 秝 (lì) — orderly rows of grain; 秝秝 (lì lì) — orderly and neat.